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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Thucydides',
	'<{subtitle}>' => 'Written in <span title="Introduction to Philosophy">PHIL 1402</span> by <a href="https://y.st./">Alex Yst</a>, finalised on 2018-06-27',
	'<{copyright year}>' => '2018',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<h2>Thucydides</h2>
<p>
	Thucydides was both a historian and military general, living in Athens during the time of ancient Greece.
	It was believed he was born around 460 $a[BCE] and died around 400 $a[BCE].
	He was way ahead of his time in that he appeared to actually understand the concept of cause and effect instead of attributing things that happened as being the work of mythological deities.
	Not much is known of his life though {{{CITATION WIKIPEDIA}}}.
	Either he didn&apos;t record his life in the form of an autobiography of this recording was lost.
	Most of what we know is about his involvement in the Peloponnesian War, from his account of it.
</p>
<h2>Ancient Greece</h2>
<p>
	Ancient Greece was a place with a complex religion that governed daily life.
	Many powerful citied looked to the deities that supposedly protected them for help.
	If victory in battle was achieved, it was a blessing from their own patron deity.
	If they lost, they either didn&apos;t please their own deity well enough or the other city&apos;s deity must&apos;ve been more powerful.
	As more and more land and people were taken into the fold, their religions were incorporated into the Greek religion.
	The Greek religion was a melting pot of such beliefs and customs.
	Ever wonder why Zeus was so promiscuous and had so many illegitimate children?
	Well, the figure of Zeus pretty much absorbed all the head gods of the various religions of the conquered people, with many of his lovers not themselves becoming merged.
	While the Greek religion is very interesting to read about, with all its complex characters and bizarre events, it reads more like a children&apos;s storybook than a what most people today would consider a religion.
	That&apos;s not to say that modern religion is in any way more realistic to believe in though.
</p>
<h2>My interest</h2>
<p>
	Having nothing to go off of besides the names of the potential research subjects and the countries in which they lived, I chose Thucydides because ancient Greece has always been interesting to me, mostly because of their mythology.
	I didn&apos;t have time to research all six options and choose what I believed to be the best one.
	As a matter of practicality, I pretty much chose one blind.
</p>
<p>
	However, after reading about Thucydides, I was very pleasantly surprised.
	At first, when I read he was a general, I considered switching subjects before continuing as I wasn&apos;t sure I&apos;d really be able to connect with a military officer.
	However, his writings make it clear that he didn&apos;t blame the gods the same way common Greeks did back in his day.
	While he and I have very different perspectives, I take interest in how far ahead of his time he was.
	Looking at things as a string of causes and effects puts him on par with modern thinkers, even if he did believe gods were involved in some way.
	And if he didn&apos;t believe the gods had anything to do with it, he was actually <strong>*ahead*</strong> of most people today.
	While most people today grasp the concept of causality, they still on some level usually think a particular god (these days, usually Yahweh/Allah) and think this deity has some sort of plan for the universe and humanity, despite there being no evidence that this is anything more than myth.
</p>
<h2>Realism</h2>
<p>
	Thucydides was the founder of realism {{{CITATION HRI}}}, a philosophical view that focuses not on what should be done to make life better for people, but instead on how to keep power over others using political and forceful means.
	To put it simply, realism claims that might makes it right, so those that hold the power are the people that matter.
	Of particular note, Thucydides analysed the power balance between older, powerful states and newer or weaker states in a system of political states.
	He claimed that changes the power hierarchy of the powerful states could upset the balance of interaction between states in the system, but changes in the weaker states would have no overall effect {{{CITATION HRI}}}.
	To put it simply, states with less political power don&apos;t contribute much to the system&apos;s stability.
	He cited the upset in the balance between two powerful states, Athens and Sparta, as the cause of the Peloponnesian War.
	As Athens grew in power, it wanted to overtake Sparta as the most powerful state in the system.
	You don&apos;t see that sort of power struggle in the weaker states.
	You don&apos;t see the weakest two states, for example, fighting to be second-weakest instead of absolute weakest.
	Sure, changes can happen at this lower level, but there aren&apos;t any notable power struggles at that level.
</p>
<p>
	Basically, the power in charge does whatever it wants and the lesser powers have to just deal with it.
	When a lesser power starts to gain power quickly enough that the power in charge feels that it might get usurped, a conflict will begin to arise.
	The various lesser powers will begin to take sides, choosing which they feel would put them in a better situation if put or left in power.
	The system becomes polarised {{{CITATION HRI}}}, almost creating two distinct systems competing to exist.
	Only one can exist though, and the other must fall.
	Either the rising threat will be subjugated or the former power in charge will have its power stripped by the rising power.
</p>
<p>
	Thucydides had a different view on intrastate politics though.
	He said that within a state, a social contract protects the weak citizens from the powerful {{{CITATION HRI}}}.
	Within the state, the weak could therefore hold their own, even though weak states have little to no power over strong states.
</p>
<h2>Validity</h2>
<p>
	Thucydides&apos; realism is certainly valid at least on the interstate, both then and now.
	The thing about this viewpoint is that it looks not at what should be done to make the world a better place, but rather how to stay in power more effectively if you already have power.
	It looks at how effective rulers and leaders attain and keep their positions.
	All of that applied back then and it applies to this day.
</p>
<p>
	However, it&apos;s also not how I look at the world.
	I choose to believe there&apos;s more to what we should do than the &quot;might makes right&quot; mantra indicates.
	I respect Thucydides&apos; viewpoint, especially given how far ahead of his time he was, as he didn&apos;t try to blame fictional deities for the power struggles of humans.
	Thucydides&apos; viewpoint isn&apos;t useful for understanding how countries <strong>*should*</strong> interact, but it&apos;s very useful for understanding how they <strong>*do*</strong> interact.
	Thucydides understood that politics tend to be immoral, and broke them down well using that basis.
</p>
<p>
	I&apos;m not sure Thucydides&apos; view on intrastate politics is valid though.
	These days, we constantly see injustices in which the powerful subject the weak.
	Often times, laws are made to protect powerful corporations from individuals or groups of individuals.
	The mega-corporations have the resources to lobby politicians and are usually the ones pulling the government&apos;s strings.
	The powerful are the puppet masters and the weak are left to fend for themselves.
	My understanding is that this same problem existed in Thucydides&apos; day, to an even greater extent, with no way for the lower, subjugated class to become part of the upper, ruling class.
	The theory that a social contract holds people to ethical considerations only applies to people of similar power levels, even if one is of slightly-higher power.
	As soon as you try to apply it to people of substantially differing levels of power, just doesn&apos;t hold.
</p>
<div class="APA_references">
	<h2>References:</h2>
	<p>
		Kemos, A. (n.d.). Thucydides in the Modern World. Retrieved from <a href="http://hri.org/por/thucydides.html"><code>http://hri.org/por/thucydides.html</code></a>
	</p>
	<p>
		Wikipedia. (2018, June 22). Thucydides. Retrieved from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides"><code>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides</code></a>
	</p>
</div>
END
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